Kampfgruppe: Normandy Game

Enjoying the last day of a 4 day weekend. I took some time off to relax and enjoy our club's three-day gaming blow out. However, yesterday (Sunday) I did not go to the meeting, as the games being played did not interest me - and I played Friday night and most of the day Saturday. I planned a simple Sunday of watching football and painting 28mm French Napoleonics.

But - Matt called. He's a great guy, someone I am fortunate to be friends with - and he was looking for something to do and wondering about the games going on at the club. So, change of plans. Matt came over and we hung out and drank beer and listed to football while we played a game of Kampfgruppe: Normandy (KG:N)!

Since getting the rulebook, I have been excited to play and Matt was game, so we decided to improvise a scenario. We decided to set up a very terrain intensive table - hills, hedgerows, roads, fields, woods, buildings, everything - to put the game through its paces. Then we divided out roughly even forces for Germans and Americans. We don't care about even forces typically - but we improvised a meeting engagement and thought it best.

The Germans had the following:
1   PzKpfw-IV G
1   Marder-III M
2   Medium Mortar Teams
2   Heavy Machinegun Teams
1   Infantry Platoon (1 HQ Section and 3 Squads - all four units with 1 panzerfaust)
1   PAK-40 ATG

The Americans had the following:
1   Sherman M4 76mm
1   M8 Greyhound
2   Medium Mortar Teams
2   Heavy Machinegun Teams
1   Infantry Platoon (1 HQ Section and 3 Squads - each squad with a bazooka)
1   Medic
1   3" ATG
1   Bazooka Team

In KG:N, the types of units you have give a certain number of morale points each - it turns out that both sides had 17 morale points for the battle. There are events that cause you to draw a morale chit from a sack - the morale chit will indicate the number of morale points lost, ranging from 1 to 4. There are a few "special" chits int he bag too but none where drawn during the game!

So we went off to battle and had a great time. We both enjoyed the game and would play again. We think we played for 4 hours and 30 minutes - but this was due to the slowness of a first game, trying to figure things out. We did not mind playing that long - but the next game will go quicker.

What concepts in the rules were enjoyed and appreciated?
1. Infantry versus infantry close assaults. Costs you a single casualty when you initiate. Unlike other games, only the initiator will cause losses. Odd, but it does work within the context of the rules.
2. Suppressive Fire versus Direct Fire. Makes the player make important decisions.
3. Artillery support - feels right, hard to get sometimes - which is right for this level of a game.
4. The ability to place a unit of overwatch.
5. The fact that I could not move all of my units at will. The command system works well. You get a variable amount of points to spend activating units - and it is usually never enough!

What concepts were not enjoyed and appreciated?
1. The rules are easy and sections are very well laid out and presented - but some things are buried in weird places.
2. We felt that a sniper needs a longer range to be worthwhile. Maybe even a spotting bonus.

Would we play again? Assuredly. We enjoyed the system and the game and the outcome!
Would we recommend the rules to fellow gamers? Yes. Obviously what is cool to one person is not always cool to another.

Onto the images...